Bedding products such as those used for pet beds often employ dense recycled memory foam as such products are inexpensive and act as an excellent cushioning layer. If such material is simply placed within a fabric covering, limitations associated with such a bedding product become quickly apparent. For example, if one was to pick the bedding product up by one of its corners in order to move it from one location to another, the filling material would concentrate in the opposite corner producing a pear-shaped cross section.
Recognizing the need to maintain fill material uniformly dispersed across the entire internal volume of the bedding product, the prior art has suggested a structure depicted in FIGS. 1 and 2 hereof. Specifically, pet bed 10 is shown composed of upper fabric layer 12 and lower fabric layer 16 containing fill material 13. In order to maintain fill material 13 in place, longitudinally extending parallel stitching 11 is provided. In this way, regardless of how bedding product 10 is handled, fill material 13 will generally remain in place.
Although, superficially, the bedding product 10 provides somewhat of a “solution” to the problem of fill material migration, bedding product 10 is hardly ideal. Specifically, by providing stitching 11, bedding product 10 inherently presents extended peaks 14 and deep valleys 15 which is not by any means a preferred sleeping surface. Even a pet engaging bedding product 10 would find the undulating surface thereof somewhat uncomfortable causing the pet to oftentimes reject the bedding product in favor of nothing more than a carpeted surface.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a bedding product devoid of the limitations of the prior art.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a bedding product which can be used, for example, as a pet bed which substantially prevents fill migration while providing a relatively flat or planar surface to a user.
These and further objects will be more readily apparent when considering the following disclosure and appended claims.